The Roland SC-55 ( Sound Canvas) is a GS

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

sound module A sound module is an electronic musical instrument without a human-playable interface such as a piano-style musical keyboard. Sound modules have to be operated using an externally connected device, which is often a MIDI controller, of which th ...

released in 1991 by

Roland Roland (; ; or ''Rotholandus''; or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was mil ...

. The SC-55 was the first sound module to incorporate the new

General MIDI General MIDI (also known as GM or GM 1) is a standardized specification for electronic musical instruments that respond to MIDI messages. GM was developed by the American MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) and the Japan MIDI Standards Commi ...

standard. It was the first in the

Roland Sound Canvas The lineup is a series of General MIDI (GM) based pulse-code modulation (PCM) sound modules and sound cards, primarily intended for computer music usage, created by Japanese manufacturer Roland Corporation. Some models include a Serial communicat ...

series. Unlike its predecessor, , supporting up to 24-voice polyphony with 16-part multitimbrality. Aimed at PC music enthusiasts, the SC-55 featured 315 instrument patches, including the GS drum kits and additional controllers. The selection of effects includes

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

and

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

. It additionally came preloaded with patches imitating the

Roland MT-32 The Roland MT-32 Multi-Timbre Sound Module is a MIDI synthesizer module first released in 1987 by Roland Corporation. It was originally marketed to amateur musicians as a budget external synthesizer with an original list price of $695. However, ...

's variation bank but lacked the MT-32's re-programmability. Alongside the SC-55, Roland released the SB-55 (Sound Brush), an inexpensive MIDI sequencer module the same size as the Sound Canvas. Both the Sound Canvas and Sound Brush could be rackmounted alongside each other. Other models with comparable tone generators include Roland CM-300, Roland CM-500 and Roland SC-155 sound modules. CM-300 and CM-500 models lack the LCD screen and extended controls of SC-55. Both models have external appearance nearly identical to Roland's earlier CM-32/64-series modules. SC-155 adds additional slider controls for master and channel level and panning. Additionally, CM-500 includes a fully SysEx compatible LA tone generator similar to CM-32Ls.

The SC-55mkII

A minor upgrade to the original SC-55, the Roland SC-55mkII has increased polyphony (28 voices), more patches, raising the total number to 354 instruments and extended, and improved audio-circuitry in the form of 18-bit audio (versus 16-bit in the original SC 55.) The SC-55mkII added a serial port as an alternative inexpensive computer interface to the MIDI connectors, which required the use of an MPU-401 or similar MIDI controller.

Roland SCC-1

Roland also released the Roland SCC-1, an 8-bit ISA half-size card incarnation of the CM-300 sound module. The sound source is controlled by an on-board MIDI Processing Unit, a variant of the

MPU-401 The MPU-401, where ''MPU'' stands for MIDI Processing Unit, is an important but now obsolete interface for connecting MIDI-equipped electronic music hardware to personal computers. It was designed by Roland Corporation, which also co-authored the ...

unit. An updated version featuring the SC-55mkII sound set was also released, known as SCC-1A. When bundled with the Band-in-a-Box and BalladeGS software, it is called SCC-1B. Roland later replaced the SCC-1 with a combination of their MPU-401AT MIDI interface card and SCB-55 Wave Blaster-compatible daughterboard. Roland referred to this combination as the SCM-15AT. The SCC-1 was also sold as the GPPC-N for the NEC PC-98.

CM-32P and MT-32 emulation

Since the SC-55 has no programmable memory, CM-32P and MT-32 emulation is done by providing the same sound arrangement as the preset sounds of actual devices. These variation banks are enabled by playing back special

SysEx Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

containing MIDI files, for example, GS32.MID (included in the SCC-1 Utility Software), prior to loading a . These specially arranged tone tables contain the relevant GS sound mapped at either CM-32P or MT-32 program number. Pitch bend range is changed to 12

semitone A semitone, also called a minor second, half step, or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between ...

s from GS default 2 semitones. Master tuning and modulation depth are not altered by the emulation. Pan directions are reversed from actual CM-32P or MT-32 devices. CM-32P or MT-32 specific

messages are also ignored by the SC-55.

MT-32 emulation samples

The Roland SC-55's CM-32P and MT-32 emulation is based on using preset sounds of the actual devices without using programmable memory or actual device synthesis techniques. This results in poor emulation for software relying on custom programmable MT-32 sounds, as demonstrated by the introduction of the

Sierra On-Line Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (formerly On-Line Systems and Sierra On-Line, Inc.) was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1979 by Ken and Roberta Williams. The company is known for pioneering the graphic adventure game ge ...

game Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon. Emulation for software supporting the Roland MT-32 but not using its memory is better, as demonstrated by the introduction song from

Origin Systems Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games ...

' Ultima VI: The False Prophet.

Use in media

It was used in the soundfont for Microsoft Windows. The sounds of the SC-55 (or any other similar Roland products) can be recognized in various television jingles and production music during the 1990s. It is also notable for its use in various episodes of British television series ''

Mr. Bean ''Mr. Bean'' is a British sitcom created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions and starring Atkinson as the title character. The sitcom consists of 15 episodes that were co-written by Atkinson alongside ...

''. Video game musicians also used it to write their MIDI soundtracks, most famously in '' Doom (1993)''. *

References

External links

* http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanwen/personal/synth/roland_supp_notes.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Roland SC-55 SC-55 Sound modules